It has long been known to use a sheet material to curl hair as disclosed, e.g., in JP-U-11-14546, but it is difficult to handle hair with such a sheet material.
In order to facilitate handling and curling hair, JP-A-10-192036 proposes a tubular hair rolling tool and a method of hair rolling. This tubular hair rolling tool has a great merit in that a strand of hair can be handled much more easily.
The hair rolling tool of JP-A-10-192036 has a plastically deformable member attached along the longitudinal direction of the tube. The plastically deformable member is freely bendable and can be retained in a bent shape. With a strand of hair put in the tube, the plastically deformable member is deformed to keep the hair in the deformed state. The hair rolling tool is used in combination with a hair drawing tool. The hair drawing tool is a stick having integrally formed at the end thereof a loop through which a strand of hair is slipped.
Because the hair rolling tool is made of a low stiff material such as Japanese paper or nonwoven fabric, the opening of the hair rolling tool is deformed easily when a parted strand of hair is passed through the loop of the hair drawing tool. As a result, the hair and the loop of the hair drawing tool are apt to be caught on the opening edge, making it difficult to smoothly inserting the hair inside the hair rolling tool. Besides, the loop of the hair drawing tool is made of a plastic material, which makes the hair and the loop more apt to be caught on the opening edge of the hair rolling tool. The larger the loop of the hair drawing tool, the more easily is hair slid therethrough. However, the loop of the hair drawing tool cannot be made larger than the opening of the hair rolling tool because of its material rigidity.
The publication says that, in doing a perm using the hair rolling tool, a permanent wave solution is applied before rolling up hair, and the flat tube is then rolled by hand. Since the hair should be rolled by hand as has been conventionally done, the permanent waving still takes a lot of trouble. The tools are not easily manageable for users to roll up their hair by themselves so that rolling takes them a lot of time and trouble.
Moreover, where the hair rolling tool has a tubular form, the inner and the outer sheets necessarily generate strain on being deformed. The strain becomes greater as the amount of hair held in the tubular hair rolling tool increases or as the curvature of curls becomes larger. If hair is curled without eliminating the strain, it will not be curled into a neat ring but an odd polygonal shape.
JP-U-6-37762 discloses a hair curler composed of two flexible sheets superposed on each other and joined along both sides. One of the flexible sheets composing the hair curler is made of a shape-memory material which can return to its original rolled shape, and the other is a mesh sheet or a nonwoven fabric sheet. The two sheets are detachably joined along one of the sides. It is easy with this hair curler to roll up hair. However, it is difficult to put a strand of hair in the hair curler before rolling.
WO 00/57744 discloses a tubular hairdressing tool as an auxiliary in waving hair by a perm, etc., which is formed of a mesh sheet and has extensibility in both longitudinal and transverse directions. A strand of hair is inserted through the tubular hairdressing tool being extended in the transverse direction and contracted in the longitudinal direction. The tube is extended, then deformed by, for example, twisting at two or more positions together with the hair, and maintained in that state for a prescribed period of time to curl the hair. However, while or after a strand of hair is inserted through the tube, the tip of the hair tends to be bent backward or irregularly waved with the tube contracting, resulting in a failure to curl the hair beautifully.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a hairdressing tool having a tube in which a strand of hair can be inserted easily and rapidly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a hairdressing tool, with which a strand of hair can be rolled up easily and rapidly.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a hairdressing tool, with which hair can be waved easily.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a hairdressing tool, with which hair can be curled easily, securely, and neatly.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a hairdressing method which makes it easy to do a hairdressing treatment such as permanent waving or coloring.